Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets[ Hits:703 ]Review: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a fun-filled and eye-popping sci-fi comedy action adventure that recalls the quirky, comic spirit of Besson's previous sci-fi extravaganza The Fifth Element, the CGI dimension of James Cameron's Avatar and the technologically imaginative and bizarre world of David Cronenberg's existenZ. Based on the influential comic book series of the same name, we follow 28th Century special operatives, Valerian and Laureline, who must race to identify a marauding...

War for the Planet of the Apes[ Hits:692 ]Review: Andy Serkis is the ringmaster in the reboot series of The Planet of the Apes. A pioneer of iconic digital characters, having played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he's done it again with Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and now War for the Planet of the Apes. His latest action-adventure sees Caesar, the figurehead and lead for the series, rightfully front and centre. The character has not only developed in terms of characterisation, but in terms ...

Spider-Man: Homecoming[ Hits:667 ]Review: Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Spider-Man... no, this isn't the theme tune. It's how you'd sound counting the number of Spider-Man franchises over the last 15 years. While this superhero has had as many actors don the web-tangled red-and-blue as there have been Hulks in as many years, it's starting to get ridiculous. No one ever thought they'd see Garfield and Spider-Man in the same movie, let alone the same sentence, and yet it happened with The Amazing Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield is a terrific actor ...

Ghost in the Shell[ Hits:574 ]Review: Ghost in the Shell is based on a manga series, which was later adapted into an animated feature in 1995. Partly inspired by Arthur Koestler's The Ghost in the Machine and partly an inspiration for The Matrix, this much-loved Japanese series continues to inspire. Now unveiling its latest iteration, an almost inevitable live-action adaptation, starring Scarlett Johansson and directed by Rupert Sanders, we get a chance to see Major come alive... even if her shoes seem too big for her.
The film tak...

Passengers[ Hits:723 ]Review: Passengers is a sci-fi romance thriller, directed by Morten Tyldum and starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. It's a sci-fi because the story takes place in outer space, dealing with a transporter by the name of 'Avalon', which holds over 5000 passengers on a 120 year voyage to 'Homestead II'. Their hibernation pods prevent them from ageing, allowing them to essentially travel into the future, foregoing friends and family on earth to start over on a new colony. The corporate colonisation of...

Arrival[ Hits:782 ]Review: Arrival is a science fiction mystery drama from Denis Villeneuve, based on the short story Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang. Villeneuve continues his outstanding run of form: having directed Incendies, Prisoners, Enemy and Sicario, he turns his attention to science fiction with Arrival. The film has similarities with Contact, the Robert Zemeckis film, in which Jodie Foster plays a woman desperately trying to interpret a message to prove the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence originat...

Star Trek Beyond[ Hits:845 ]Review: Star Trek Beyond is the third film in the latest iteration of Star Trek. The first two films, Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, were directed by J.J. Abrams, but since he's crossed over to the Star Wars camp with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, they've forced him to pick a side to keep peace on earth. Star Trek Beyond was entrusted to Justin Lin, a director who has made a name for himself directing Fast and the Furious sequels, a series with a growing ensemble and big effects. Lin has shown h...

X-Men: Apocalypse[ Hits:940 ]Review: X-Men: Apocalypse is the latest installation from director Bryan Singer and writer Simon Kinberg. X-Men: First Class introduced us to the next generation of X-Men, enabling the filmmakers to go back in time and extrapolate the complex story between Professor X and Magneto, and the rise of the X-Men. Singer returned to the franchise, after something of a hiatus, with X-Men: Days of Future Past.
The superhero balancing act turned out to be one of the year's best films, with Singer essentially spl...

Captain America: Civil War[ Hits:968 ]Review: Captain America: Civil War continues in the tradition of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It sounds like an obvious statement when you consider it follows as a sequel, but these sequels are very different from Captain America: The First Avenger. The first installation was an origins story and focused on Steve Rogers, or Captain America, played by Chris Evans. While more than competent, Evans isn't the most charming actor to don spandex and despite his best efforts to fly solo, a captain need...

Star Wars: The Force Awakens[ Hits:1065 ]Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the long-awaited sequel that re-ignites the Star Wars Universe with a seventh episode. After a successful Star Trek reboot, Spielberg-in-the-making J.J. Abrams was entrusted to deliver a film that picks up the story decades after the original trilogy, now existing within the Disney empire under the banner of recent acquisition, Lucasfilm.
A lot has changed since Harrison Ford last tag teamed with a wookie as famed odd couple, Han Solo and Chewbacca. Film technolo...